• Journal of the Health Care and Life Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2022

Korea's suicide rate is 23.0 people per 100,000 OECD standard population (as of 2017), the highest among OECD member countries, 2.1 times higher than the OECD average of 11.2. The suicide rate in Gangwon-do is the fourth highest in the country and the number of suicides is 507, with a suicide rate of 26.1 per 100,000 people. As basic data for reducing the suicide rate in Gangwon-do, the National Statistical Office, National Health Statistics, Community Health Survey, Health Insurance Corporation DB, Mental Health Case Management System (MHIS), and previous studies were analyzed in relation to suicide. Based on this, it is intended to provide basic data for reducing the suicide rate in Gangwon-do and to provide basic data for the design and use of an effective social intervention model.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.479-489
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• 1998

This work was done for 9 patients having experience of a herb medical treatment after being diagnosed as CVA during a year from January, 1996 to December, 1996 by using an ethnographic research method. The summarized results of this research are following. Ⅰ. THE EXPERIENCE OF THE ILLNESS First, the falling-ill phase is the time that they have the first stroke of paralysis and the decision pattern of medical institution' comes out. The emotional experience in the period is something like 'flustration', 'anxiety', 'despair', and 'expectation'. Second, the active-treatment phase is the time that the patients as well as their family or care giver not only show the positive attitude and actively participate in the illness treatment but also show a lot of interest in medical institutions and activities of health recovery. There is a primary factor of the continuation of treatment as an experience of treatment and being crushed and sensitivity as an experience of the illness. Third, the rehabilitation phase is the time that the patients or their family become tired and insensitive to the treatment and recuperation, and then reduce the treatment activity. There is a primary influence factor of the discontinuance of treatment as an experience of treatment and physical experience and emotional experience as an experience of the illness. The physical experience is divided into 'personal-hygiene care', and 'the sphere of activity' The emotional experiences are 'blaming someone', 'contempt' and 'despair' as a negative experience and 'hope' as a positive experience. Ⅱ. COPING STRATEGY There are a physical coping, an emotional and mental coping, a social coping, and a spiritual coping as a coping strategy used for the patients to overcome their illness and adjust themselves to their altered life. First, the physical coping comes out as 8 categories, 'using an auxiliary tool', 'doing exercise', 'protecting', 'improving their diet', 'taking care of something', 'using subsidiary medicines', 'trying a folk remedy', and 'having interest in their health'. Second, for the emotional and mental coping, there are 'accepting' and 'trying' as a positive coping and a failure of control as a negative coping. Third, the social coping is appeared as 'being supported'. Fourth, the spiritual coping is recognized as' recourse to God' and 'preparation of death'. After all, the elderly CVA patients in an agricultural area choose the act of treatment based on the traditional belief and the relationship with a caretaker. A personal health can be maintained by taking care of themselves and controling their mind, and the overcome of the illness is decided on the basis of traditional concepts and cultural principles in which the patients as well as the family, neigbors and take carers should work out together and cooperate with each other in order to achieve that.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.16-29
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• 2024

Purpose: This scoping review aimed to synthesize the characteristics and effects of interventions designed to prevent unintentional home injuries in older adults in Korea. Methods: The review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute protocol. A literature search was performed for studies published between 2001 and 2022 in the DBPia, RISS, KMBase, and NDSL databases. A total of 1,620 studies were identified, and 27 studies were included in the final analysis. Data were analyzed for characteristics of the literature, intervention-related unintentional injury mechanisms, and safety areas. Results: Most selected studies utilized a quasi-experimental design and targeted elderly women. In terms of injury mechanisms, 21 of 27 studies focused on falls, 2 on fire/disaster, 3 on drugs, and 1 on food. The most common preventive intervention for falls was exercise, and its effectiveness was verified using physical safety variables. Interventions in the fire/disaster, drug, and food domains were all educational, and changes in knowledge, behavior, and attitude were verified. Conclusion: This study confirmed the effectiveness of interventions for preventing unintentional injuries in the homes of community-dwelling older adults. These findings can serve as a foundation for developing and implementing unintentional injury prevention interventions at home for community-dwelling older adults. Multidisciplinary research is needed to address multifaceted safety issues by considering the home environment and injury risk factors.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.28-41
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• 2003

Background : Because unplanned readmissions to intensive care unit(ICU)might be related with undesirable patient outcomes, we investigated the pattern of and reason for unplanned ICU readmission to provide baseline data for reducing unplanned returns to ICU. Methods : The subjects included all patients who readmitted to ICU during the same hospitalization at a tertiary referral hospital between January 1st and June 30th 2002. Quality improvement(QI) nurse collected the data through medical records and a medical director reviewed the data collected. Results : 1) The average unplanned ICU readmission rate was 5.6%(gastroenterology 14.6%, pediatrics 12.7%, pulmonology 11.9%, neurosurgery 6.3%, general surgery 5.3%, chest surgery 3.9%, and cardiology 3.3%). 2) Among the unplanned readmissions, more than 50% of cases were from patients older than 60 years, and the main categories of diagnose at hospital admission were neurologic disease(29.9%) and cardiovascular disease(27.6%). 3) Of unplanned ICU readmissions, 41.8% had recurrence of the initial problems, 44.8% had occurrence of new problems. And 9.7% required post-operative care after unplanned operations. 4) The most common cause responsible for unplanned ICU readmission were respiratory problem(38.3%) and cardiovascular problem(14.3%). 5) About 40% of unplanned ICU readmission occurred within 3 days after ICU discharge. 6) Average length of stay of the readmitted patients to ICUs were much longer than that of non-readmitted patients. 7) Hospital mortality rate was much higher for unplanned ICU readmitted patients(23.6%) than for non-readmitted patients(1.5%) (P<0.001). Conclusions : This study showed that the unplanned ICU readmitted patients had poor outcomes(high morality and increased length of stay). In addition study results suggest that more attention should be paid to patients in ICU with poor respiratory function or elderly patients, and careful clinical decisions are required at discharged from ICU to general ward.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.222-228
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate activity participation level and functional disability based on ICF for the elderly aged over 65 years. Subjects were 100 senior citizens. We performed data collection using Korean Activity Card Sorting(KACS) and World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0(WHODAS 2.0). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, multiple regression. As a result of the survey of activity participation levels, retained level of activity participation of instrumental activity was highest at 75.06%. Among the WHODAS 2.0 sub-domain, 'getting along with people', 'participation in society' had the most difficulties and 'self-care', 'life activities' were the lowest. An analysis of the correlation between the activity retention rate and functional disability showed that there was a significant negative correlation. Significant factors influencing functional disability were activity participation level of social activity, instrumental activity and main work(retirement). We confirmed that activity participation level was important factor on functional disability. Further, we need standardization study for generalization.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.835-852
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effects of social support on material hardship of low-income elderly people that have been excluded from the National Basic Livelihood Security System. For this research, data of 255 persons aged 65 and over were collected using a survey conducted in 2014 by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea on the minimum living cost of low-income household. Data analysis was performed through descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis with STATA13. According to the results, the average level of material hardship in low-income elderly people was 1.45 out of 6, with the most hardship shown in heating and health care. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that when low-income elderly people became excluded from the system, they suffered more than the recipients. They also showed that the social support system of low-income elderly people brought a negative impact on their material hardship when they were connected by the strong social support system. In other words, social support system reduced their material hardship caused by exclusion. Based on the results, this study suggests some practical and political means to reduce material hardship of low-income elderly people.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.469-481
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• 2019

Background: As South Korea is becoming an aged society very rapidly, the increase in osteoarthritis prevalence raises various public health issues in this country. This study aimed to explore the socio-demographic factors associated with osteoarthritis in the current Korean elderlies. Methods: Using the National Survey of Korean Elderly data (2014, 2017), we analyzed 20,326 elderlies (males, 8,248; females, 12,078) and conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses by sex. The dependent variable is whether a participant was diagnosed with osteoarthritis or not. Independent variables of interest is socio-demographic factors such as age, marital status, household type, residential area, household income, religion, the longest job, the number of close relatives, the number of close friends, and survey year. Control variables are various health behavioral factors and disease-related factors. Results: Prevalence of osteoarthritis was 19.2% in male elderlies and 47.0% in female elderlies. According to the results of the multivariate logistic regression adjusted for all studied control variables, the odds ratio (OR) for having osteoarthritis of under-elementary school graduates (their counterpart was college graduate group) was 1.81 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.29-2.52) in males and 1.67 (95% CI, 1.12-2.47) in females. The OR of those having a job in agriculture & forestry fishery as their longest job (their counterpart was those who had never participated in labor force during their lifetime) was 5.07 (95% CI, 1.46-17.58) in males and 1.49 (95% CI, 1.27-1.74) in females. In males, the second-low quartile group in household yearly income (their counterpart was the highest quartile group) had the OR of 1.22 (95% CI, 0.98-1.53). In females, the OR of those having a religion of Buddhism (their counterpart was those having no religion) was 1.20 (95% CI, 1.07-1.35) and the OR of those who had no relatives (their counterpart was those having more than 3 close relatives) was 1.31 (95% CI, 1.10-1.56). Conclusion: This study found that in Korean elderlies, education, the longest job, household income, religion, and the number of close relatives are associated with their suffering from osteoarthritis. Further study and designing appropriate interventions are needed to alleviate current and future individual and socioeconomic burdens of osteoarthritis in an aged society like South Korea.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.865-874
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the current status and educational contents of the geriatric-related curriculum in dental hygiene departments at colleges across the country. Methods: To analyze the current status of geriatric curriculum, it was investigated by searching the websites of colleges across the country where dental hygiene (curriculum) department was available. Furthermore, a literature review of domestic and foreign textbooks related to geriatric dental hygiene was conducted to analyze the contents of geriatric dental hygiene curriculum. Results: Among colleges that offer dental hygiene (curriculum) department, 8 four-year and 12 three-year colleges (24.4%) offered geriatric dental hygiene courses. A comparison of the contents of the textbooks titled "Geriatric dental hygiene" published by Goonja, Daehan Narae, and Komoonsa showed that basic contents such as the characteristics, health problems, and oral health problems of elderly -people were described in the same context. However, there was a difference in the volume and importance of the concerned contents also. Conclusions: Universities and related organizations which offer dental hygiene curriculum should continue to conduct studies for the development of geriatric hygiene curricula. Moreover, heightened efforts are needed to ensure that geriatric dental hygiene education is more systematically offered.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.49-56
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to provide a convergence suggestion of health care and social welfare services by empirically analyzing the effects of chronic diseases and quality of life on subjective health cognition in single-household women aged 60 or over. This study was based on the 2016-2019 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and 1,111 women who had been divorced or bereaved in single-household aged 60 or over were selected. As a result, it was arthritis that showed the largest average difference in subjective health cognition according to the prevalence of chronic diseases. And in the multiple regression analysis that was controlled for demographic characteristics, chronic disease had a negative (-) effect on subjective health cognition, and quality of life had a positive (+) effect on subjective health cognition. The negative (-) factor that had the greatest effect on subjective health cognition was diabetes(-0.084) among chronic diseases, and the positive (+) factor was mobility(+0.173) among the quality of life. Therefore, it suggests that health care services for chronic diseases should be strengthened in order to improve the subjective health cognition of single-person households over 60 years old, and social welfare policies to improve the quality of life should be considered together in a convergence.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.26-36
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• 2020

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the regional characteristics and the age-adjusted cardio-cerebrovascular disease mortality rates (SCDMR) in 229 si·gun·gu administrative regions. Methods: SCDMR of man and woman was used as a dependent variable using the statistical data of death cause in 2017. As a representative index of regional characteristics, health behavior factors, socio-demographic and economic factors, physical environment factors, and health care factors were selected as independent variables. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were performed to identify their relationship. Results: OLS analysis showed significant factors affecting the mortality rates of cardio-cerebrovascular disease as follows: high-risk drinking rates, the ratio of elderly living alone, financial independence, and walking practice rates. GWR analysis showed that the regression coefficients were varied by regions and the influence directions of the independent variables on the dependent variable were mixed. GWR showed higher adjusted R² and Akaike information criterion values than those of OLS. Conclusion: If there is a spatial heterogeneity problem as Korea, it is appropriate to use the GWR model to estimate the influence of regional characteristics. Therefore, results using the GWR model suggest that it needs to establish customized health policies and projects for each region considering the socio-economic characteristics of each region.